THE  LWRflHi 
OF  1HE 

KHViRMTY  OF  ILLINOIS 


The  Lilian  Edwards  Prize  Essay 


SOCIAL  TRAINING  NEEDED 

FOR 

HIGH  SCHOOL  TEACHING 


IDA  WIGGIN 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE  STATE  COLLEGE 
SENIOR  CLASS 


DURHAM,  N.  H. 
1919 


LILIAN  S.  EDWARDS  PRIZE. —A  prize  given  by  Mrs.  Lilian 
S.  Edwards,  of  Sanbornville,  N.  H.,  for  the  publishing  and  distri- 
bution of  the  best  thesis  on  a sociological  subject  written  by  a stu- 
dent for  the  Department  of  Sociology  during  the  second  and  third 
terms  of  the  college  year,  1918-1919. 

The  papers  presented  in  competition  for  this  prize  were  read 
by  Mrs.  Lilian  C.  Streeter,  chairman  of  the  Children’s  Commission, 
Miss  Luella  Dickerman,  Principal  Parker  School  and  Rev.  George 
Reed,  D.  D.,  all  of  Concord,  N.  H.  The  prize  was  awarded  to  Miss 
Ida  Wiggin  of  Dover,  a member  of  the  Senior  class. 

The  Lilian  S.  Edwards  Prize  for  the  college  year  1916-1917  was 
awarded  Miss  Dorothy  Hanson  of  Franklin,  N.  H.  The  subject  of 
the  thesis  was  “The  Social  Significance  of  the  Motion  Picture.” 

The  Lilian  S.  Edwards  Prize  for  the  college  year  1917-1918  was 
awarded  Miss  Frances  Kling  of  Concord,  N.  H.  The  subject  of 
the  thesis  was  “Russia’s  Social  Problem,  The  Peasant.” 

Copies  of  the  latter  thesis  may  be  had  from  Professor  E.  R. 
Groves,  Department  of  Sociology,  Durham,  N.  H. 


SOCIAL  TRAINING  NEEDED 
FOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  TEACHING 


Life  is  so  short  and  time  is  so  fleeting  that  purposeful 
men  and  women  have  always  wanted  to  make  the  most 
of  each  day,  perhaps  particularly  in  recent  years,  when 
our  civilization  has  become  so  complex  and  often  so  dis- 
tractingly  varied  and  hurried.  All  the  more  essential, 
therefore,  has  become  the  knowledge  of  the  best  and 
easiest  and  quickest  ways  of  doing  the  things  that  lead 
to  the  efficient  life.  As  a nation  is  made  up  of  individ- 
uals, so  a nation  of  efficient  individuals  is  an  efficient 
nation,  provided  of  course,  that  personal  efficiency  in- 
cludes the  ability  to  work  harmoniously  and  well  in  co- 
operative or  group  action.  The  entrance  of  America 
into  the  struggle  for  world  democracy  emphasized  and 
accentuated  in  the  minds  of  our  people  the  great  im- 
portance of  personal  and  social  efficiency. 

If  the  principles  underlying  efficient  action  need  to 
be  learned  and  applied  generally,  they  are  of  as  great  im- 
portance to  high  school  teachers.  If  in  school,  under 
competent  teachers,  pupils  can  grasp  the  general  prin- 
ciples that  are  at  the  basis  of  all  success  and  then  can 
apply  them  to  the  various  employments  which  they  en- 
ter, how  great  a prevention  of  failure,  or  of  success  that 
is  only  meager,  will  result. 

Our  present  college  and  university  education  gives 
young  men  and  women  almost  no  knowledge  of  the 
duties  of  citizenship,  much  less  of  leadership,  whereas 
a somewhat  different  education  might  teach  them  some- 
thing of  both  without  omitting  anything  essential  from 
the  present  course  of  study. 


4 


The  aim  of  education  should  be  to  alter  present  in- 
stitutions to  conform  to  our  better  ideals  as  we  become 
more  socially  intelligent  and  unselfish.  It  is  an  educa- 
tion primarily  ethical,  seeking  to  make  clear  by  the 
study  of  the  present  and  the  past,  that  wherever  men 
have  developed  from  savagery,  they  have  done  so  by 
achieving  social  ideals  and  by  modifying  their  individ- 
ual moral  code  to  conform  to  the  welfare  of  the  race. 

Four  years  of  college  or  university  training  is  the 
reasonable  amount  expected.  If  this  four  years'  work 
is  to  be  most  effective,  it  needs  conscious  direction 
throughout.  As  things  are  now,  some  thousands  of 
college  graduates  each  year  begin  as  High  school 
teachers.  How  many  of  these  undertook  the  whole  or 
even  a considerable  part  of  their  undergraduate  work 
with  a specific  view  to  teaching?  Probably  much  less 
than  one  half.  These  men  and  women  are  going  out  in 
our  schools  to  teach  languages,  chemistry  and  mathe- 
matics often  when  they  have  studied  few  other  subjects 
than  these  in  college. 

The  basic  principles  of  a scheme  for  the  better  ad- 
justment of  education  to  social  needs  are  these: 

1.  It  should  develop  appreciation — or  a desire  for 
the  better  things  within  reach  of  the  individual  in  an 
advancing  society. 

2.  It  should  provide  information  or  give  one  access 
to  a fund  of  valuable  knowledge. 

3.  It  should  stimulate  utilization,  or  give  the  indi- 
vidual the  training  necessary  to  lead  him  to  use  his 
ideals  and  his  knowledge  in  efficient  living. 

In  regard  to  the  first  principle,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  desire  is  the  basis  of  all  effort.  If  education 
is  to  lead  to  progress  it  will  be  the  result  not  only  of 
wise  direction,  but  of  heroic  struggle  which  can  be  ob- 
tained only  through  the  development  of  intense  desires. 
If  pupils  can  be  led  to  appreciate  the  values  attached 
to  any  particular  part  of  the  curriculum,  the  foundation 


5 


for  the  effort  necessary  to  master  it,  will  have  been  laid. 

Child  psychology  has  taught  us  that  the  curriculum 
should  fit  the  child  and  that  the  best  way  to  teach  de- 
sired things  is  to  adapt  them  to  the  nature  and  wants  of 
the  pupils.  To  a certain  extent  this  is  true,  and  the 
best  teachers  are  trying  to  understand  the  inner  forces 
leading  to  children’s  efforts  and  to  stimulate  a desire 
for  a particular  kind  of  knowledge  before  the  rote  pro- 
cesses of  acquiring  it  are  enforced. 

The  second  principle  of  socialization  is  that  educa- 
tion should  provide  information,  or  a fund  of  useful 
knowledge. 

In  applying  this  principle,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  all  knowledge  is  not  equally  valuable  and  that  since 
it  is  impossible  to  acquire  all  knowledge,  some  basis 
must  be  used  in  selecting  from  the  knowledge  fund. 
Knowledge  must  be  selected  with  the  social  as  well  as 
the  individual  end  in  view.  Thus  we  see  that  while 
fields  of  individual  and  social  knowledge  do  not  con- 
flict, they  may  differ  largely  and  neither  can  be  safely 
neglected. 

In  the  third  principle  of  socialization  comes  the  final 
principle  in  determining  the  end  of  education.  Social- 
ized education  must  be  dynamic.  In  order  to  carry  out 
a successful  program  a closer  relationship  must  be  es- 
tablished between  the  school  and  other  organized  agen- 
cies of  active  life. 

The  student  needs  to  study  a series  of  genuine  and 
varying  social  situations.  They  must  be  vitalized 
human  situations  involving  the  use  of  the  social  motives 
and  they  win  the  attention  of  the  learner  best  when 
they  are  chosen  from  present  day  social  problems. 

The  attitude  of  the  students  depends  wholly  on  the 
teacher  and  her  training  should  include  of  course  the 
study  of  the  individual  child.  This  involves  primarily 
child  psychology — but  also  considerable  adolescent  psy- 
chology and  sociology.  The  old  idea  that  the  work  of 


6 


the  teacher  is  merely  in  the  school  room  is  dying  out 
and  the  teacher  is  being  trained  to  feel  a certain  re- 
sponsibility for  her  pupils  at  all  times.  Ideally  the 
high  school  teacher  should  be  likable,  inspiring,  and  in- 
tellectually suggestive  to  the  pupils  as  well  as  efficient 
in  causing  them  to  make  personal  progress.  This  kind 
of  teacher  has  an  inexhaustible  field  in  both  the  ex- 
pressive and  cooperative  forms  of  school  work. 

There  should  be  considerable  difference  in  the  train- 
ing of  teachers  for  rural  schools  and  for  city  schools. 
At  the  present  time  the  training  of  teachers  for  rural 
schools  is  in  some  states  one  of  the  most  difficult  prob- 
lems. 

Rural  teachers  have  a greater  responsibility.  They 
must  prepare  themselves  not  only  to  conduct  a rural 
school  curriculum  with  effectiveness  and  enterprise,  but 
also  to  stimulate  the  desire  for  rural  progress.  In  their 
training  school  they  must  have  opportunity  to  come  into 
contact  with  all  rural  interests,  and  must  have  knowl- 
edge of  rural  community  activities. 

Any  teacher,  in  country  or  city,  should  have  appre- 
ciation of  the  significance  of  the  home.  She  should  un- 
derstand the  family  in  order  to  understand  her  pupils. 
A great  deal  of  the  success  of  the  pupil  depends  upon 
his  or  her  home  environment.  If  the  parents  become 
interested  in  the  school  work,  a load  is  removed  from 
the  teacher.  Progress  in  interesting  parents  in  school 
work  is  being  made  by  the  Parent-Teachers  Association. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  many  difficulties  of  school 
teachers  arises  from  their  failure  to  distinguish  between 
discipline  and  teaching.  The  old  order  of  conditions, 
wherein  discipline  was  conceived  to  be  most  perfect 
when  all  children  were  so  suppressed  that  quietness 
reigned  and  all  moved  as  one,  must  pass.  Order  to-day 
is  quiet  activity  wherein  each  member  of  the  class  rec- 
ognizes the  rights  of  others  and  acts  accordingly.  This 
requires  teaching.  By  teaching  we  mean  the  planning 


7 


and  organizing  of  the  work  so  that  the  pupils  become 
seekers,  searchers,  and  workers,  requiring  only  now 
and  then  the  formal  presentation  of  a lesson. 

At  the  present  time  the  normal  schools  usually  give 
only  two  years  of  training.  Only  of  late  has  there  been 
much  emphasis  given  to  sociology.  It  is  fortunate  that 
recently  such  marked  progress  has  taken  place  in  the 
normal  schools  in  the  application  of  sociology  to  the 
teacher’s  vocation.  Colleges  for  some  years  have  been 
giving  courses  of  great  value  to  prospective  teachers. 

The  social  education  of  women  demands  from  now 
on  the  most  scrupulous  regard  for  the  training  of  every 
normal  girl.  A truly  socialized  education  will  accord- 
ingly adapt  the  individual  not  merely  to  immediate  so- 
cial conditions  but  even  more  to  those  of  the  future. 

A socialized  education  means,  first  of  all — a liberal- 
izing and  liberating  education  of  the  mind;  and  the  sub- 
jects which  are  especially  adapted  to  achieve  this,  if  we 
wish  to  maintain  a free  social  life,  are  bound  to  receive 
primary  consideration.  Secondly,  it  consists  of  training 
which  has  for  its  aim  both  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual life  and  the  adjustment  of  the  individual  to  the 
needs  of  the  social  whole. 

The  social  education  of  women  must  make  adequate 
provision  for  vocational  training.  Moreover  we  are 
also  beginning  to  perceive  that  all  service  is  of  social 
value,  and  that  all  constructive  labor  is  perhaps  more 
nearly  of  equal  social  worth  than  we  had  supposed. 
For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  the  social  training  of 
teachers  must  be  brought  to  a far  higher  plane  of  ethi- 
cal vision  and  enthusiasm. 


3 01 


12  105793944 


8 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Redirecting  Education  and  Teaching  in  a Democracy,  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  March,  1919. 

Education  for  Democratic  Leadership,  American  Journal  of  Sociol- 
ogy, May,  1918. 

Why  School  Teachers  Fail  to  Teach  School,  Current  Opinion,  Oct., 

1918. 

Training  a Socialized  Rural  Leadership,  School  and  Society,  Jan., 

1919. 

Study  of  Socialized  versus  Academic  Methods  of  Teaching,  School 
Review,  February,  1919. 


